A map of Edinburgh's bee hotspots is to be drawn up in an effort to boost the city's pollinating insect population.

Bees have had a hard time of it lately according to the British Bee Association, with intensive farming practices, pests and diseases among the factors harming their survival chances.

Now Edinburgh has been chosen as one of four UK cities to help reintroduce pollinating insects, such as bees. As a result a more diverse range of flowers is likely to appear in the city. If the right types of plants exist, bees can survive even in some of the most polluted cities, as New York City's Great Pollinator Project blog shows.

The new Urban Pollinators study has been hailed as "a major step forward for nature conservation in Edinburgh." A council biodiversity officer will work with Edinburgh University and wildlife trusts to explore how cities could help to restore insect populations.

The economic value of honey bees as pollinators of commercially grown crops in the UK has been estimated at over £200m per year.

"As long as flowers are allowed to grow in city habitats, and areas are left undisturbed for nesting and development of young stages such as caterpillars, then city habitats can support almost as many pollinators as found in the countryside.

"Our aim is to identify which habitats in cities are best, and how others might be improved – for example, by increasing the diversity of plants present or changing the intensity and timing of mowing."

A team of researchers will also look at whole communities of bees, flies, butterflies and beetles that visit flowers before constructing food webs to show the patterns of flower-insect interactions.

A series of mathematical models will then be drawn up which will map city pollinator hotspots. These models can be used to improve existing habitats and create new ones, locally adapted to each city. These will act as test beds to assess whether the environments identified as most beneficial do actually encourage the most pollinating activity.

Malcolm Fraser, said:

"This project could be a major step forward for nature conservation in Edinburgh. Finding out where our pollinator hotspots are means we can focus our efforts in these areas to make them as biodiversity-friendly as possible."

At the end of the project the findings will be presented at a conference providing data for policy makers, farmers, growers and producers about the causes and consequences of threats to insect pollinators.